GE14 | As Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak set the next general election in motion today, he reminded Malaysians that which party wins the election is not based on popular votes.

In his speech announcing Parliament's dissolution, Najib pointed out how Malaysia has practised the first-past-the-post system since the country's independence.

“Which is based on the number of seats won and not based on the popular vote and which should be understood by all quarters, especially parties that will be contesting in the general election,” he said.

Najib's reminder comes after electoral reform group Bersih said the 14th general election could theoretically be won with a simple parliamentary majority comprising a mere 16.5 percent of the popular vote, based on the new electoral constituency redelineation bulldozed through the Dewan Rakyat.

Bersih's outreach officer Chan Tsu Chong pointed out that under the current first-past-the-post system in Malaysia, 112 seats are needed to win a simple parliamentary majority, but with the lopsided constituency sizes, it could comprise only a minority of the voting population.

This was exposed in the 13th general election when the opposition coalition of the time Pakatan Rakyat won 51 percent of the popular vote while BN only had 47 percent.

However, BN won the election as it had 133 seats, while Pakatan only won 89 parliamentary seats in the 222-seat Dewan Rakyat.

The coming general election, which has been described as the 'mother of all polls', must be called by the Election Commission (EC) within 60 days after the dissolution of Parliament.

The election has been called just shortly after passing the redelineation exercise, which has been marred with allegations of gerrymandering to benefit BN.

This time, Najib will face the Pakatan Harapan federal opposition pact led by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is touted to make a comeback as the coalition's prime minister candidate.